"Why has the SimCity story gone away? It's a good question. And the answer for it reveals much about how both the games industry, and the games journalism industry, work." Telling - not just for the game journalism, but all of it. As a sidenote, you can always rely on Rock Paper Shotgun to bring the best gaming news. Under-appreciated gem of online news reporting.

It went away for 2 reasons.....reader fatigue and relevance. Most people are simply tired of hearing about a game flop, over and over and over......And in the great scheme of things is SimCity really all that important? Really?

And in the great scheme of things is SimCity really all that important? Really?

Well, it kind of is. The whole lesson with all this is: "Yes, you can totally screw over people and still get away with bucket-loads of cash." You may not agree, but personally I feel that is an important lesson, both for the masses and for the companies feeding the masses.

Sorry, but I have to disagree. It isn't important. It's a game and a crappy one at that, one designed for people who have no life and/or too much time on their hands....Most people have a lot more things of importance to focus on than a bad video game....or stories about a bad video game. And nobody forced anyone to buy that crappy game so you can climb down from your socialist soap-box about how so many people have been cheated. People get cheated everyday in all sort of ways with all sorts of products. It isn't like they bought fake medicines or something.

And nobody forced anyone to buy that crappy game so you can climb down from your socialist soap-box about how so many people have been cheated. People get cheated everyday in all sort of ways with all sorts of products. It isn't like they bought fake medicines or something.

So, your point is that it's okay to screw people over as long as it's a product you don't care about?

The whole point is that it is a video game and tbh this shit is to be expected.

I bought Crysis 3 at launch which was in February, it didn't work 100% on my Nvidia Card (very very very crashy). Only recently (last week) has the game been patched to work properly with the card. Where was the uproar about it being AMD optimised?

Yeah I should have known it would be pretty buggy, but I was sold on playing the game and thought "I could put up with it", I was wrong. The game was almost unplayable until recently.

Rage on the PC only recently had a Patch that made it work properly with AMD cards again no uproar.

The original Xbox 360 owners got screwed with the red ring of death. At lets not forget Ubisoft with their shitty gimped PC releases.

Like the gambling industry and the porn industry, gaming is something where they will try to get every last penny out of you. It doesn't matter if it is right or wrong, you gotta get used to it and buy smart.

Sorry the continues whining about something which at the end of the day is entertainment is just infantile. It like going to the cinema and demanding your money back because you didn't like the movie.

Sorry the continues whining about something which at the end of the day is entertainment is just infantile. It like going to the cinema and demanding your money back because you didn't like the movie.

Wow, both you and the other commenter miss the whole point here: companies shouldn't screw you over. Period. It's not about the product itself, it's about the whole premise of companies doing shit deliberately and still getting away with it. But no, both of you insist on just seeing SimCity, not the big picture.

Wow, both you and the other commenter miss the whole point here: companies shouldn't screw you over. Period. It's not about the product itself, it's about the whole premise of companies doing shit deliberately and still getting away with it. But no, both of you insist on just seeing SimCity, not the big picture.

Well you obviously didn't read my comment did you? No they shouldn't screw you over. But I disagree that there was any screwing over tbh and I also don't expect a business to overly care unless they are making money ... good if they do ... if they don't it is upto you as the consumer to be wise to it.

It not like you didn't get SimCity that you paid for. There were server problems; It is shitty, but I've been on plenty of deployments that have gone tits-up when the switch to live was done.

Me and you have a very different ideas about "being screwed over". It not like they I dunno ... gave everybody a free game afterwards ... oh wait they did.

If you don't like the possibility of paying for a turd when it comes to entertainment, it's probably best to wait until someone else has tried it out and I dunno listen to see if they thought it was any good ... or read a review?

I also don't expect a business to overly care unless they are making money

Of course they don't. I don't expect them to do that, either. But as I said, they should.

Me and you have a very different ideas about "being screwed over". It not like they I dunno ... gave everybody a free game afterwards ... oh wait they did.

Imagine ordering a car, but instead of getting the car you ordered you get a moped. Then after complaining about it you're offered a choice of various accessories. Wouldn't you feel screwed over? Wouldn't you feel you didn't get what you ordered? Does offering something extra somehow make it all good?

If you feel so then fine. I don't feel that way.

If you don't like the possibility of paying for a turd when it comes to entertainment, it's probably best to wait until someone else has tried it out and I dunno listen to see if they thought it was any good ... or read a review?

If you're directing this specifically to me: I never bought SimCity or was even planning to. I'm not one of the people who got screwed over by it.

Wow, both you and the other commenter miss the whole point here: companies shouldn't screw you over. Period. It's not about the product itself, it's about the whole premise of companies doing shit deliberately and still getting away with it. But no, both of you insist on just seeing SimCity, not the big picture.

Well, people who got burned by this game and others like it will (hopefully) choose not to buy any more forced, single-player online-only games in the future. There's no point in continuing to bitch about it. Perhaps when EA/Blizard's next big release comes out that's online-only, you can then remind people of what happened with Sim City and Diablo 3.

But for now, the damage has been done, you live and learn, and it's over. Time to move on. If people who know about these botched releases continue to buy games from these companies, then f--k 'em. They deserve exactly what they get. It's like buying a lemon from a used car dealer, and then continuing to do business with them. If you WILLINGLY bend over to take it up the ass, then don't come back crying about how you got screwed.

If you DO decide to buy one of these games, I'd just treat it like a new, blockbuster movie release. You already know that if you go the first couple of weeks, the theater will be packed, and it's probably going to suck. In these cases, you don't go to the midnight release on opening day, and then bitch that you couldn't get a ticket, or you had to sit way in the back. If you just wait a week or two, you can avoid the crowds and long lines, and sit wherever you want.

My point is that it's just a lousy video game and if you feel so screwed over for buying it, then go and get your money back instead of trying to turn this into some form of social movement. And if you spent your last penny on this game and are you're now so financially broken by the purchase then you need to re-examine your priorities. That's my point.

My point is that it's just a lousy video game and if you feel so screwed over for buying it, then go and get your money back

If only the world worked like that.

instead of trying to turn this into some form of social movement.

Why not? Do tell me, what exactly is wrong with complaining about companies deliberately screwing people over? Should we all just swallow it all and never question anything? Not all of us are content at just being mindless drones, you know.

Everyone got an apology, a free game and still play the game they bought.

They got screwed over when they could not play the game they paid for. They got screwed over when EA removed features from said game to try to handle the server load and yet failed miserably. They got screwed over when EA said that the "always online DRM" was actually a requirement since Sim City was a MMO. They got screwed over when EA forces "always online DRM" when it was proven that the game can be played offline perfectly, without social features.

Well, actually the world does work like that, at least the one I live in. I've never had a problem returning a bad product for a refund. Maybe you should try it some time. That's the normal way for a developer to get the message that he's pushing a bad product. It doesn't require an organized protest against "the man" out in the streets.

My point is that it's just a lousy video game and if you feel so screwed over for buying it, then go and get your money back instead of trying to turn this into some form of social movement. And if you spent your last penny on this game and are you're now so financially broken by the purchase then you need to re-examine your priorities. That's my point.

For what it's worth I absolutely agree with you, however there are three groups of people that simply do not listen to reason: gamers, socialists, and the religious. Don't waste your breath. If these fools do not realize that they will continue to be screwed until they stop buying the crap and thus volunteering to be screwed, they deserve everything coming to them. They can't screw you if you don't buy. It's that simple. If you continue to buy from a company like EA that has a known history of ass-raping its customers, you shouldn't come bitching when it happens. You knew it, you bought it, so you get what you bought. End of story. If you'd use your brains instead of your keyboard and mouse, perhaps you all would not be bawling about being screwed and would be just a little more intelligent about purchasing products in the future. Take it as a life lesson learned, and do please at least try to learn from it.

You know what? It is a call to arms. There's an abysmal difference between being an earlier adopter and expecting a few bugs in the game and being lied to your face. The worst part is that this is not the first time this fiasco happens. EA should have learned with what happened with Diablo III, for example.
EA had a rough estimate on the number of players based on the number of pre-orders. But why should they care? They already have the customers money on their pocket.
When I buy something I expected it delivered as advertised, the moment I bought it, not months later.

First, just because the game belongs to a medium you don't enjoy doesn't mean other people don't. I'm sure there are plenty of things you do which others would consider to be a waste of time; there's no reason to be an ass-hat about it.

Secondly, it's important because there are a lot of people buying the game that don't understand the full implications of doing so (feeding EA and encouraging further poor behavior from them and other like-minded companies).

Third, it doesn't matter if a person 'has' to buy something to get cheated in that exchange. Are you suggesting that it's literally impossible to be ripped off in any exchange that doesn't involve food, water or shelter?

Fourth, complaining about a shitty company isn't socialism. It's the only way a free market will work, in addition to avoiding said shitty company's products in the future (see point #2).

It's not so much about the game itself (which you obviously hate), it's about how the developer treats their customers. It could be the greatest game in the world or the worst ever released, and it would be the same problem. When a developer goes out of their way to screw over their customers and then turns a blind eye to the aftermath, it's an issue.

Granted, for me personally it just means I'll avoid that developer in the future, and as a casual gamer that's no big deal. But for people whose main hobby is gaming, it can be a big deal.

In short, just because it doesn't affect you doesn't mean that it's not a problem. The world doesn't revolve around you.

Nooo..the correct thing to take away from that is "Yes, you can totally screw over people with preorders and still get away with bucket-loads of cash and then watch the sales take a giant nosedive into the bargain bin" which frankly we already knew, see Aliens: Colonial Marines as an example.

To me the bigger lesson is thus: despite all the pundits saying "poo poo voting with your dollars don't work, poo poo" it very much DOES work, it just isn't a magic bullet and takes time. The CEO of EA is gone and the company is for sale, Ubisoft has done an about face and removed their nasty DRM to try to stem the bleeding, Activision is restructuring, it shows that voting with your dollars works and works quite well, its just not magic and like with anything dealing with a large entity takes time.

I think the next example of it working will be MSFT, either Windows 9 has a full windows 7 desktop and the ability to switch off TIFKAM or the company will continue to nosedive right off the map. All Simcity proved is that pre-orders is a scam that should be avoided because they can sell you a bag of magic beans with pretty screen caps or fake demos while having nothing but a pile of poo at the end of the day.

The story isn't about a game flop. It's about how a big company designed a product, engineered a control network and wove it around that product. It's about how a big company lied about how its product worked. It's about how a company manages an expected crisis when it's not bounded by laws or ethics.

I was a huge Simcity fan back in the days and very stoked about the new release. I bought it and have played it a lot and it has been an enjoyable and pleasingly addictive experience.

But.

I don't know how much longer I will play it.

It is limited in some very important areas. The whole tied to the internet and servers crap is just plain irritating but I could live with that if the other limitations were fixed, and I don't mean bugs and gaming imbalances which one expects and which will be fixed.

The biggest problem is that the cities are too small and are always built in a perfect square. Once your city is doing well it becomes a game of to how cram stuff into this tiny space. The universal square shape of the cities makes them all feel very artificial and way too similar.

If the cities were bigger and sprawled across large irregular patches of territory it would be a very good game I think.

Reminds me of how my parents, who are big fans of Sierra's city management games, were highly disappointed with Caesar IV.

Basically, in the process of porting the game to a 3D engine, they had to reduce map sizes dramatically so that it runs on the average Caesar player's computer. Apparently, even on today's hardware, it's much harder to make a 3D engine that scales well with city size than it is for a 2D one.

Perhaps that's what happened with SimCity too. Is this the first 3D release of SimCity that you play ?

The article's author should have made bold statements out in the wild, "forging" facts if necessary to push EV and Maxis to make a counter PR statement. Keeping the low profile, making only light assertions while proofs are bloody here and users' experience can be witnessed, is also playing the role as any game press editorialist.

Tabloids often reveals hidden truth because they push things a bit over the line. I know the press wants to keep a kinda professionalism, but the way it is currently run, it doesn't work, and they know it. So what's up doc ?